Engaging western landowners in climate change mitigation: a guide to carbon-oriented forest and range management and carbon market opportunities

Abstract

The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the Nation's forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water, forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and private forest owners, and management of the National Forests and National Grasslands, it strives-as directed by Congress-to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation.The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual's income is derived from any public assistance program. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write

Mitigating Climate Change Through Small-Scale Forestry in the USA: Opportunities and Challenges

“…While the carbon benefits of some of these practices are clear, those of others are not as straightforward, or are debated in the scientific literature (see Diaz et al 2009). Improved forest management is the approach to sequestering carbon that is most likely to be used in the USA outside of the Rocky Mountains and South-central regions .…”

“…Landowners wishing to participate in compliance markets and the CCX must register their credits; those participating in OTC transactions are not obliged to use a registry, although doing so may increase the visibility of their credits to potential buyers. For a more comprehensive overview of how carbon markets work and the steps forest landowners in the USA will generally be expected to follow in order to participate, see Diaz et al (2009). Table 1 indicates the leading emissions trading programs and voluntary offset standards relevant for forest landowners in the USA, and the types of forestry projects that they currently accept offset credits from.…”

Perceptions of Utah ranchers toward carbon sequestration: Policy implications for US rangelands

“…There is still uncertainty about the impact of altered management practices on the ability of rangeland soils to sequester carbon, particularly over the long term (Jones and Donnelly, 2004;Ogle et al, 2003;Soussana et al, 2004). Carbon storage in soil changes slowly and unpredictably, is more complicated and costly to monitor than carbon storage in plants, and the current scientific understanding of soil carbon cycling in rangelands is limited (Diaz et al, 2009;Ritten et al, 2009). In addition, compared to opportunities for forestry, the past and current carbon market offers relatively few standards for rangeland management (Diaz et al, 2009;Sharrow, 2009).…”

“…Rangeland carbon projects primarily focus on carbon storage in soils (Diaz et al, 2009). The primary mechanisms to increase soil carbon could involve more equitable distribution of grazing pressure over time and space to reduce defoliation frequency of forage plants and increase the inputs of carbon from standing plant materials to the soil.…”

Profiting From the Sale of Carbon Offsets: A Case Study of the Trigg Ranch

“…Most of this attention has been aimed at engaging forest and farm owners in the voluntary carbon market, but in recent years there has been a growing interest in the potential for rangeland managers to contribute to this effort. 1,2 In 2008, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) initiated a program that would allow ranchers to participate in the US voluntary carbon market by generating and selling carbon credits (see Gosnell et al, this issue, for more information on the program).…”